Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to power consumption and relates more particularly to power efficient networking devices.
Description of the Related Art
Measurement of power consumption is typically done in a testing environment only. It is also typically done for a component as a whole. In other words, a multi meter can be connected to an entire networking device to determine the power consumption of the network. However, there are draw backs to the prior art system and method for power measurement.
It is important and beneficial to determine the power consumption of a particular component of a networking device. To build power efficient networking devices such as routers or switches, it is first important to profile it power consumption. Accurate measurement of power consumption of networking devices enables development of efficient power management schemes for them.
Current solutions to the networking devices have following drawbacks that make them difficult to be used widely:
First, the prior art solutions require external hardware such as a power meter or multi meter which needs to be plugged between the wall socket and networking devices. In other words, the networking devices needs to be unplugged from its power source and plugged into power meter or multi meter. This system has several drawbacks. First, it cannot measure power consumption on a component level, but can only measure course grain power consumption. Second, it is inflexible and requires extra equipment, the multi meter or power meter. It cannot readily be deployed in a live network or in a network used in a design process.
Also, the prior art solutions can only provide aggregate power consumption of entire networking devices. The prior art solutions cannot answer the question “Where does the power go in networking devices?” For example, Ethernet switches consist of specialized hardware components such as network processors, Fan Trays, Central Processing Unit (CPU), memory, etc. Currently, there is no easy and accurate way to determine the power consumption of Ethernet switch components.
In some prior art systems the power consumption is based on estimation. In this system, the power consumption of the entire networking device is estimated by adding together the maximum power consumed by hardware components. The maximum power consumed by hardware components is derived by its data sheet. This system provides only maximum rated power consumption of the networking device and does not indicate its actual power consumption. This system also provides only coarse grained power consumption of the networking device.
In other prior art systems the power consumption is based on models or simulations. This system relies on building models or simulations to predict the power consumption of the networking device. This system provides only coarse grained power consumption of the networking device and lacks from accuracy due to use of models and is inflexible to use. It is also not guaranteed to be accurate. Further, it cannot be deployed in a live, running network.
Another prior art system involves physically removing the components. Fine grained power consumption is measured by power consumed by various networking device components (Memory, CPU, Fan, etc). The method adapted to measure power consumed by various components was to measure power with all components (P0) in the system and then physically remove each component and measure power again (P1). The difference (P1−P0) is then power consumed by the component. This too has several drawbacks. It cannot be deployed in a live, running network. It can only be used in a test environment. It also suffers from accuracy problems since the components must be removed.
Lastly, the prior art solutions do not offer Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that a developer can use to query the power consumption data, which is needed for developing power management algorithms.
One disadvantage of this system is that it cannot be deployed in a live network. Another disadvantage is that power consumption cannot be accurately measured at a component level.
Accordingly, what is needed are systems and methods that can determine power consumption for each component individually and that of the whole system. Furthermore what is needed are systems and methods that can be deployed in a live, running network and a design environment as well as in a test environment.